Joe White: Last call for pruning until fall

Horticulture -- Joe W. White

With most plants suited up with their full compliment of foliage and most of the spring flowering shrubs and trees well past their period of blossoming, some wrap-up pruning may very well be in order.

This is particularly true for those late spring blooming plants that you could not prune a bit earlier due to destroying their pretty blossoms. If you're not in the mood to do any pruning now of if it would interfere with family vacations at this time, you have about one month more to accomplish this task without it being detrimental to the plants.

So, what I'm saying is that you need to finish any necessary or desirable pruning by mid-July.

The first thing to do is to walk around your landscape and make a survey of the plants that could use some pruning. If any are found, return to your shop or garage and get out your pruning equipment. For most people that would mean a pair of hand shears, a lopping shear and a pruning saw. Be sure they are all well sharpened before heading out to use them. The pruning of limbs and branches 10 feet or higher and limbs that are very large should be left to a qualified arborist.

Now you must decide what part of the tree or shrub needs to be eliminated. A good starting point is to inspect a plant for crossing branches which rub against one another when the wind blows through the canopy.

Choose one to keep and remove the other. When larger limbs are involved, you will observe that the limb is a bit larger at its point of attachment to a larger limb or to the trunk. This "swollen" area is the collar and should not be removed.

Yes, a flush cut may be more attractive to your eye, but is generally more damaging to the tree. Especially on shrubs, such as large azaleas, branches that protrude well beyond the basic canopy should be severed deep within the plant. Please understand that this condition is not necessarily limited to azaleas, but can also occur on other species of plants.

Strong storms often create mechanical damage to plants, especially trees. When limbs and branches are broken, they should be removed. This may include the entire limb or branch or sometimes the removal of only part of the limb is necessary. But regardless of the cause (wind, hale, carelessness of man, etc.), some corrective pruning is in order. And don't forget, the elimination of all dead wood is always the proper thing to do.

Insects and diseases also take their toll on plants and the parts they damage or kill should be not only removed, but also disposed of by burning them. If this is not possible without breaking the law, then send them off in the trash. Follow up the pruning with treatment of the plant with appropriate insecticides or fungicides.

Very commonly people install pretty plants that at the time of planting are small ... not thinking about what their final, mature size will be. If they're lucky and have planted a dwarf plant, everything will be OK. But if their plant grows to a large size, it can block walks and drives, interfere with vision at street entrances, block vision from windows, rub against the house, etc. All of these things call for appropriate pruning to remove these problems. Sometimes, more than one round of pruning will be necessary. Pruning to create or maintain a desired form is yet another reason for summer pruning.

Late spring and summer bloomers, such as gardenias and hydrangeas, should not be pruned until their season of blossoming is over. Often this is not until late summer. Prune bush-type roses in mid-August.

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Joe White: Last call for pruning until fall

With most plants suited up with their full compliment of foliage and most of the spring flowering shrubs and trees well past their period of blossoming, some wrap-up pruning may very well be in order.